Beyond Netanyahu's suspension of an international mission in Hebron

Fadi Al-Asa-Hebron

"This is an international mission without claws or tentacles," said Hisham al-Sharbati, the coordinator of the Hebron Defense Committee in the occupied West Bank. TIPH, which seeks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop her work.

The mission consists of fifty foreign nationals from five countries: Sweden, Turkey, Italy, Norway and Switzerland, after Denmark withdrew for financial reasons and operates within the boundaries of Hebron Municipality to document violations.

How do Palestinians see the mission?
"These people are highly competent in the field of investigations, in addition to their legal knowledge. They are experts in the criminal, legal and documentary fields and work very professionally, which is what counts for them.

The mission came after a Palestinian-Israeli agreement approved by the United Nations after the massacre of the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994 to document violations and bring them to the officials of their countries, the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupation.

According to Sharabati, their reports have no impact on the ground, and despite the quality of the reports they submit, they are not published, but only for the reality in Hebron, which has been very bad for Palestinians since the mission began.

According to Israeli media, at the end of January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to win the votes of the settlers, who consider the mission biased in its reports to the Palestinians.

Although the Mission monitors violations in Hebron, its problem is that they have no immediate impact, but they are the best that could be in the face of continued attacks by settlers and army forces.

At the very least, according to Sharabati, the importance of the mission lies in transmitting its reports to the concerned countries that have influence and adopting their political decisions on their reports and describing the bitter reality of the Palestinians.

No condemnation of the Palestinians
The governor of Hebron, Jibreen al-Bakri, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the presence of the international mission is very important for the Palestinians and at least moral protection against the actions of the settlers and the army of the occupation.

Al-Bakri follows Netanyahu's decision to stop the mission as a violation of international laws and conventions and the agreements signed between the Palestinian Authority and the occupation, pointing out that the suspension of its work was presented more than once in the past because of the embarrassment these reports pose to the occupation and its image in front of these countries.

Al-Bakri asserts that all the reports do not condemn the Palestinians, neither the official nor the popular, condemning the settlers and their actions and suppressing the army forces.

He ruled out Netanyahu's warning to stop the mission's work for the elections, and indeed, as a right-wing prime minister, wants to stop its work to allow the settlers to implement their plans in Hebron.

Internationally prosecuting the occupation
In the opinion of the citizen and activist in Hebron Issa Amr, the reports of the International Mission "TIB" may be used in the future in international criminal courts and result in sanctions and personal criminalization of Israeli officials.

Despite the settlers' attacks on them and the calls to expel them, their work is very important in order to try to hunt down the settlers, occupy internationally and retrieve some Palestinian rights.

Amr said in his speech to the island Net that the Palestinian negotiator made a mistake when he could not since the beginning of the agreement to impose force on the ground for this mission, and make them for documentation only, and it was necessary to at least to support its presence in the city and raise the level of impact on the ground.

"Unfortunately," says Amr, "the work agreement of the mission since its inception was to preserve the Palestinian identity in Hebron and to reopen the closed streets. Today, however, there is a plan to fund more than 22 million shekels ($ 3.6) The heart of the old town of Hebron, which was transformed in the early 1980s into an army camp and the establishment of outposts in the old vegetable market.

"The presence of the mission is important so that the Palestinians will not become a grab for settlers and the army, at least without documentation of the violation of their rights in all its forms," ​​he concluded.